Many of the runs on the any% leaderboard were using different timing methods, which I checked and retimed, but I decided to check the 100% rules as well and noticed an incosistency. The Any% timing says to start on file select, whereas the 100% rules say to start on first input. These should not be different.
What timing method should be the standard?
Recently, I've been wondering if the Low% ruleset should be changed to not allow Yoshi for the 1-3 Secret Exit. The basis for Low% is to complete the game with as few upgrades as possible. Using a koopa shell, you can jump up to the secret exit without ever needing Yoshi. While this is quite harder and slightly slower, I have a few reasons I think it should be changed.
Firstly, again, the basis is to complete it with the fewest upgrades. It is very possible to take the exit without using Yoshi. Second, if done properly, it shouldn't be more than 5 seconds slower than using Yoshi, if not less. I don't believe the World Record is optimized enough for that to matter. And finally, the difficulty shouldn't matter. I hope that most players taking the category seriously should understand that it may be hard to complete every level with such a restriction. In SMW, one of the strats for star world requires a crazy shell movement to complete, why shouldn't this game?
One additional note: All current times can stay, as the new movement shouldn't make achieving a better time much more difficult.
Thank you for reading.
Edit: My statement about Super Mario World could be misinterpreted. I don't want to make the category harder to be harder. Just that we can do it without Yoshi, so why don't we?